There are times when one feels overwhelmed by what to do. Whereas, at other times one may feel like there is no way out of one’s current struggles. In both cases, we may feel as if we have lost our way in life. No matter what your current circumstances in life are, in this article, we will discuss about wisdom from an Indian Monk, Swami Vivekananda, that will guide you when you feel that you have lost your way in life. We also see an example of a person who applied the same wisdom in his life, belied many preexisting notions, to become the CEO of one of the biggest conglomerates in the world.
May be currently you are pursuing a college degree in a field whose job prospects seem bleak. On finding a job after college, you may find yourself being stuck in a job position which may seem demeaning to your intellectual abilities. Or may be you decided to take a break after college and prepare for competitive exams but currently are encountering repeated failures. At such times we often feel as if we have lost our way in life and we don’t know what to do. As a result we give up altogether and settle for less in life.
Vivekananda’s wisdom to guide you when you feel you have lost your way in life
The problem of feeling lost in life is specially prevalent in our current times, where the whole world is at our fingertips, thanks to the internet. Due to the blinding rate of change in our current times, we inadvertently end up feeling lost in our lives. Therefore, what to do when you feel struck in a pit hole and see the world swiftly passing by ? Swami Vivekananda answers as follows :
” By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger; and improving our strength in this manner step by step, we may reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honored duties in life and in society. “
In order to understand the profundity of Swami Vivekananda’s wisdom better, lets get back to our example of some one whose been preparing for competitive examinations. May be you are currently preparing for competitive examinations but have been encountering repeated failures whereas, your peers are earning fat pay cheques from their corporate jobs. After a while you start wondering,” What the hell is wrong with me ? Why the hell am I even doing this !”
When you find yourself in such a scenario in life, Swami Vivekananda advices you to not focus on the results, to not worry whether you are going to clear the exam this time or not. He suggests you to, “..focus on doing the duty nearest to you, well.” Therefore, for a person preparing for competitive exams, the duty nearest to him is to prepare for the subjects of the exam well, nay, prepare for current chapter that he is studying well.
According to Vivekananda, if you do your duty of preparing for the subjects of your exam well, irrespective of the eventual outcome, in the future, life and society will surely reward you with more ‘privileged’ responsibilities. Right now, it may not be clear to you what good will failures bring but if you persist with doing your duties nearest to you well, society is bound to reward you with bigger responsibilities in the future. As Steve Jobs once said in his hugely popular commencement speech at Stanford, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
How an intern went on to head a multi billion dollar company
I will end our discussion with the inspiring tale of N. Chandrasekaran, the current chairman of Tata Group, the multi billion dollar business conglomerate. N. Chandrasekaran or Chandra as he is often fondly referred to, inside the company circles, was hired fresh out of college as a computer programming intern by Tata Consultancy Services(TCS). As some one who had a degree in ‘MCA’, which is regarded by some as an inferior degree to an Engineering degree, and as someone from a non IIT background, not many would have expected him to progress through the ranks to become Tata Group’s first non-Parsi chairman.
N. Chandra, a self professed workaholic summarized his work principles as follows,
“I try to keep things very simple. I have a single list. I don’t believe you need to maintain a personal life- professional life list. You just have to keep a very simple priority list and keep it short.”
By paying closer attention to N. Chandra’s work principles its safe to say that by assigning utmost priority to the duties assigned to him, he impressed his employer so much, that he steadily rose through the ranks to head the Tata Group.
Therefore next time when you feel that you have lost your way in life, shut off all the distractions and focus on doing the duties nearest to you well.
If you liked this article, you will also enjoy reading : Top 5 Tips for Living a Happy Life by Enlightened Masters.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom. Keep up the good work! I look forward to your next post.